Sorry, No Audio This Week
Sorry, I was traveling last week and couldn’t record audio. On the plus side, Thought #3 and the humor in the P.S. link were inspired by this travel 😊. Will be back with audio next week.
If you enjoy listening, you can subscribe to the audio version on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audible so you don’t even have to look at the email 😊
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Reading Time: 1 min 36 sec
I hope the next 20’ish breaths are the most nourishing of your day.
4 THOUGHTS
1. Breath is a Curious Operation
“Breath is a curious operation because it can be experienced as both a voluntary doing and an involuntary happening. You could do a breathing exercise and feel that “I am breathing” in just the same way as you can feel “I am walking.” But on the other hand, you breathe all the time when you’re not thinking about it. And in that way, it’s involuntary. You must breathe. And so it is the faculty attending to which we can realize the unity of the voluntary and involuntary systems.”
– Alan Watts, Still the Mind
That’s the curious power of the breath: We can control it and see that “we are breathing.” At the same time, we can study it and see that, as Eddie Stern tells us, “We are literally being breathed by the atmosphere all through the day, all through our lives.” The insight and control this brings is why breath awareness and breath exercises have been used for millennia for self-realization 👏.
2. Inherent Connectedness
“Breath is a phenomenon common to all living things. A true experiential understanding of the process moves you closer to other living beings. It shows you your inherent connectedness with all of life.”
– Bhante Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English
👏 👏 👏
3. Inner Tourism, A Moving Museum, and Distance
1. Mindfulness is inner tourism.
2. Mindful breathing is a moving museum you can visit anytime.
3. “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” -Victor Borge
4. The Necessary Path
“The world mythologies all point to places like Hades, Sheol, hell, purgatory, the realm of the dead. Maybe these are not so much the alternative to heaven as the necessary path to heaven.”
– Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
Are you currently going through any “hells or purgatories” in your life? (Since you’re human, I’d wager there’s a 99.9% chance you are 😊). Maybe these are not “the opposite of heaven” but instead “the necessary path” to discovering it…
1 Quote
“It helps to realize that it’s better to follow the universe than those around you.””
1 Answer
Category: Tidal Volume
Answer: The average amount of air we breathe with each breath is only about this percentage of our total lung capacity.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
Question: What is 10-15%?
In good breath,
Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”
Breathing and Mediation Instructors:
Check out the Breath Learning Center. It’s a mountain of modern science and timeless wisdom. It’s summarized, organized, easy to read, and immediately actionable.
If you want to supply those you help with the best program possible, the wisdom and science in the Learning Center will be invaluable to your practice.
The Breathing App for Diabetes
This is the first program specifically made for people with diabetes to help manage their stress through breathing and mindfulness practices. In addition to the amazing program inside the app, we have some really neat things coming up, so sign up now!
Amazon Associate Disclosure
I’ve been recommending books for almost 6 years. Yet somehow, I just discovered that I could be an Amazon affiliate [face-palm]. In any case better late than never. Now, any Amazon link you click is an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. So, if you’d like to support my work, buying books through these links is helpful : )
* An asterisk by a quote indicates that I listened to this book on Audible. Therefore, the quotation might not be correct, but is my best attempt at reproducing the punctuation based on the narrator’s pace, tone, and pauses.